This summer, the Antique Engine & Tractor Association will construct a new building using age-old techniques.
Trillium Dell Timberworks, in association with the Timber Framers Guild, will assemble and raise a large timber framed barn to house the Antique Engine & Tractor Association’s collection.
The building will be located at the Antique Engine & Tractor Association’s new site off Route 92 in rural Geneseo.
The association, which has called Atkinson home for a number of years, is relocating following a 40 acre land donation received by the club.
Antique Engine & Tractor Association member Skip Farnam said the club purchased an additional 10 acres near the site, to bring its holdings up to 50 acres.
Though several buildings are already located on the farmland, the new timber frame barn will be the centerpiece of the association’s new site.
At the Antique Engine & Tractor Association’s spring breakfast on April 4, Trillium Dell Timberworks owner Rick Collins discussed the new building, as well as timber framing in general.
“Timber framing is how our ancestors built things up until about 100 years ago,” said Collins.
“We’ll be using the same joinery in your building as was used in the oldest timber frame building that’s thus far been found in Europe. That building was built around 1470 B.C.
“We didn’t have to invent anything, we just have to understand how things were done in the past,” he said.
Collins’ buildings utilize mortise and tenon joinery. “All joinery is cut and then test fit at our shop, so when it gets here, it will all go together.”
Located in Knoxville, Trillium Dell Timberworks was started by Collins in 1999. The company specializes in timber framing and historic restoration.
When he started the business, Collins said his goal was to “create value-added products with timber from Illinois.”
“I always try to use local materials,” he said. The Antique Engine & Tractor Association barn will be constructed from approximately 92 percent Illinois materials.
“We’ll use 18,000 board feet from Illinois and the remaining 1,500 from Missouri,” Collins explained.
The timber framing methods used by Trillium Dell Timberworks have largely gone out of popularity in the United States, though they’re still utilized in Europe.
“Europe continued evolving, we didn’t,” he said. As a result, “The software programs and equipment we use is almost 100 percent European in origin.”
The Antique Engine & Tractor Association’s timber framed building will be similar in design to barns built in the Midwest between the 1840s and 1850s.
“It’s a very straight forward, classic Midwestern barn,” said Collins.
On April 13, Trillium Dell Timberworks will start cutting frame work for the barn at its Knoxville shop. The company has already created all rafters and braces for the project.
Construction on the timber framed barn will start at the Antique Engine & Tractor Association’s property on Aug. 12.
Working with members of the Timber Framers Guild and local volunteers, the company will assemble and raise the five-bay square rule, white oak structure.
Construction of the barn is expected to last until Aug. 22. During that time, the Timber Framers Guild intends to integrate workshops on structural panel installation, raising and rigging techniques, forklift safety, scaffold erection and project management.
The general public is encouraged to visit the work site and ask questions throughout the life of the project.
The Antique Engine & Tractor Association’s 2009 working farm show will be Sept. 18-20 at its Atkinson site. The association expects to host its first show at the new location in 2010, said
Farnam.
For more information on the Antique Engine & Tractor Association, visit www.ae-ta.com. For more information on timber framing, visit www.trilliumdell.com or www.tfguild.org.
Geneseo, Ill. —
